dubai_phil

That is REALLY interesting, was there now it isn't so somebody just let the dogs of war out on the Telegraph Try again http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/news/6294728/How-did-a-Hong-Kong-barber-take-over-Birmingham-City-FC.html The search gets it here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/search/?queryText=birmingham Think Sultan Bin Trump was funny - this one asks how a BARBER in Hong Kong ended up buying Birmingham - FFS that's even MORE stupid than me explaining how to do this and buy Saints last year!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/international/england/6300340/BBC-highlights-of-Englands-World-Cup-qualifier-made-technical-efforts-waste-of-time.html And that as they say says it all.... 25 people on one registration lol

:smt033 I wish..... Glasto comes but once a year but not if you live down here! Trust me we never made it to the White Cliffs. We got there one day but found we'd forgotten our passports. On the way back found a nice bar of Toblerone at the Service Station and the rest as they say (we hope) is history. Anyway, we have to worry about the forum otherwise where will you be posting when Hammond makes it onto the bench for his first game? I still lol at how some of our paperwork blew out of the car that first day and looked to float off across the channel. Still hate your part of the world though, blo*dy worm sh@gger bowled me 1st ball at Tipton one Sunday after I flew all the way back for our tour match weekend. Not that I remember too much about it. Think our opening bowler fell over in his first ball run up and vomitted. Was that sort weekend. BTW, Simples I have seen where it comes from, but what bstd is actually responsible for Onwards & Upwards?

Some advice Don't Some more advice At Check-In, smile and say hello nicely Mention you are all excited because you are raising lots of money for charity Ask them if the flight is very full up And whether there is any chance they could halp to ensure that you get all the way around By upgrading you to Business So you can drink Champers all the way across the pond.... Seriously The day will be full of excietment but also pain. The point is that it will be one of the most special things you have or will ever do. Get focused but absorb EVERY moment, every time the pain hits look at the people in the crowd supporting you. Those memories are what you will take and will be with you forever. Don't leave that chance behind, live the moment

BTF - you think this is bad read THIS article... I commented on the General Sports Thread in more detail http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...m-City-FC.html recognise any of it? Invisible owner..........

WOW After following the shenanigans down the road for a while as we all have, then this article must strike a few chords as well. Invisible businessman. Nobody knows where he made his money. Previous issues with the authorities amongst members of his team and even legal action against the principle........ No not Al Fahim but BIRMINGHAM FFS http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/news/6294728/How-did-a-Hong-Kong-barber-take-over-Birmingham-City-FC.html I was in Macau 3 weeks ago on vacation, anyone who has been there recently will see the amazing numbers of casinos that have been built and if you went into them the astonishing number of Chinese playing the tables. All very odd in deed. My opinion.... Dear Premier League Think you better sort your rules out PDQ, this may be fine, the Skates deal maybe fine but soomer or later you guys are going to have SUCH a problem it ain't real. You don't sort your sh*t out you may derail the whole gravy train. Greed without wisdom is a very dangerous thing

Which is probably why, between the regular stalkers on here you've all managed to weed us down to only ever having just over 100 folks on line at any one time. The old days have gone, the same arguments are repeated more often than Dad's Army, but always at the wrong time and in the wrong place. Let's move on, I am sure it will only be a matter of time before the world turns again and we wake up to some new internal controversy. The MLT apology ain't gonna happen Nobody will be able to write the definitive Lowe/Wilde/Crouch/The Execs/GB/NP/LM/MC/GA/Ali blo*dy Dia was good or evil story. So until we get a new snippet of actual factual data on the bunch of them can we stick to debating the thread titles instead of scoring points from matters 6 months old or more? That way there may just be enough posters left interested to find 22 people for the next forum match.. Your opinions are valid, because you hold them, we all got it guys. The only way out of this loop is to either have a "History Forum" on here or you accept that as FF says, until you sit down in the pub and have a one on one conversation one day, nobody is going to win an argument without some new facts.

Which of course explains why they haven't paid their bill. Not been a decent business since MM waltzed in. No offence to the Sk8tes, we were just a failed one.

I have a friend who has a Filipino wife. Her brother was washed out to sea during the Tsunami in Samoa where he was working in a hotel. Fortunately, a Hurricane hit her family's village and caused several hundreds of thousand of dollars worth of improvement as compensation. Which is another way of saying the core of the joke is funny but not these days straight after the South Pacific problems. Which our TV station hope to have solved by the time they rescreen the movie tomorrow night. But seriously, it's as politically incorrect as Bruno at the moment chaps.

Compensation clause - quick take the money oops sorry had a relapse there, forgot we are under new onwership. Meanwhile a sensible comment. Smaller town, in some respects a yo-yo team, good platform for up and coming managers - Martin O'Neill, bad platform for up and coming managers - Tony Adams. Probably better opportunities will come his way as our results improve. Ipswich for instance

Actually Beirut is an unfair comparison, there are some pleasant places there, more like one of the Hamas refugee camps.... Who can tell WTF is going on? I know some senior Emiratis and Saudis who are big fans of Arsenal or Liverpool, but honestly, even if I had the creativity to have dreamt this all up and asked them to pull some strings and make all this happen, I don't see it. And no they have never heard of him either. My humble opinion (as everyone keeps asking) 1) It is just another attempt at a Leveraged buy-out 2) It is a smokescreen I do suggest that whatever happens you guys should continue to follow the no doubt blossoming career of Sultan Bin trump once he returns to his roots. I'm sure he'll go places. When something smells of fish it is simply often fishy

But that's technically very naughty. :rock: Especially when our club was desperate for your extra 25 quids to pay Euell's signing on fee each year... A more grey one is you have your subscription and you listen to the commentary and then somebody calls you on Skype. You then have this dilemna do you turn off the commentary feed and talk, or do you accidentally connect the call but forget to talk and continue to sit there and listen while you type texts to each other about the weather, muffins, woots etc. A probably not even grey one is the accidental placing of the radio by the PC Mike from the 96.1 broadcast, which is of course not as bad as having the web cam facing the TV set while you talk to your mate in some far off land. Luckily of course I couldn't do anything so naughty as the evil Skype and all other forms of IP web based telephony is illegal in this country and their web site is blocked by Proxy

Back to the original thread title. Can somebody send a GPS system to our sk8te mates. With luck it will tell them what position they are actually in, 'cos there sure as hell don't seem to be any clarity or real progress in any direction at the moment. Especially with MoG's great links from the Mail today

https://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20091006072840/Hydra%20To%20Appeal%20Against%20Buyers'%20Court%20Victory Oh dear, court actions relating to the days when Sultan Bin Trump was in charge No bonus cheques now dude (Oh and to those at Nottark Krap that accepted his bid 6 weeks ago - this was also well known about you idiots) Like the Mail article. A Saudi being used to hide the money coming from some more dodgy Israelis - could be a good one

Thanks - so shows some footballing intelligence maybe - Last Man 85 minutes hanging on for a win. And why would the others be in Salisbury on a weekend off? Jeez I thought most there tried to get out of it every weekend:-)

There is a fundamental problem with writing the history of the past 6 years. History always tends to be written from the viewpoint of the winners. Tragically, all across the trail of destruction and cast of "thousands" involved in the "Epic" tale of our demise lies a trail of NDA's and previous history of legal actions, and of course, many protagonists still need to work and eat and cannot afford to breach those agreements. Without access to pages of emails and documentary evidence, printing anecdotal evidence and hearsay relating to chance encounters in hotel lobbies or overheard phone calls becomes a minefield. The only way FF could ever get the story into the press would be if there was a benefit for any of the protagonists. So, would we want to see Lowe's side of the story and evidence proving he was the good guy? (lol), the minutes of the meetings between MW & LC & the Execs showing they all were imbued with common sense, even forensic evidence that GB was a militant muslim and followed the teachings with regard to consumption of certain substances? MLT wrote his book to sell it, the controversy was needed in the modern era to gain the media attention to get the book on prominent display even in Duty Free Bookshops at Heathrow. But as for the likelihood of his public admission of having been conned/taken for a ride or turned into somebody's PR b1tch, well, two problems there - how often does ANYONE apologise these days and how often does it make NEWS? There is a way to get the answer you seek. MLT's quite a public character, especially with his charity events, pop along, and ask him. It will be off the record, it won't be publishable but maybe you'll get what you seek and understanding may well follow when the context becomes better understood. Otherwise, you face a dliemna. You have the right to ask the question. Unfortunately, for many, they have either made a judgement or let it go as part of the "Strange set of Circumstances" that got us to where we are today. Do you pass down the road to darkness the cartoon character filling his pen with poison and frustration each morning as the story fades? or do you take the step to find the actual answer by understanding that it won't be public, it won't be publishable, it won't be provable? But it will tell you why, and it will tell you in your own way that you were right, but not in the "Told you so way". That, sometimes can be more despairing than the route of the poisoned pen! (Which was a DP way of saying 19C - you made your point, it has registered but you ain't gonna get what you seek so give it a rest)

Anyone know why, after you have gone through the registration process you can apply for tickets to follow ANY team except England? In 02 in Japan almost everyone I met was an expat who had got their tickets the same way and were more rugby fan profile than Engerland Uber fan. Just seemed odd that's all. Plenty of other ways to do it including the Emirates web site (at huge cost) but grrr The ExPat route was a cracker, not seen why

Was just checking the L1 scores on Soccernet and see he got a Red Card in the 85th minute for Salisbury today in their 1-0 win over York City Won't make the cheap shot comparison to Ollie Lancashire (oops) but anyone go/got more info?

Coming back to the "can he be consistent" longer term question, couple of points I feel All youngsters are inconsistent as others have said, heck even Rooney had bad games at the start of his career, so don't be surprised when it happens and lay off him and/or the others, it'll pass. Then we come to the shape and system. It is early days yet and as others have said harding gets 2 on 1. Now other managers will of course try and exploit that by setting their teams up to counter us. However IF we play the fast moving game well, then as we get better at it, more teams will tend to get blown away as we learnt to impose ourselves. IF we really get it together then our strengths will blow other teams away, it's hard for them to double up on Harding if they're short at the back all the time with our guys pinging the ball around fast. Let's face it, the system is the same as Chelsea/Arsenal/Liverpool play, you could argue that Anelka never really tracks all the way back, but not many teams get the chance to expolit that, so playing to his strengths and keeping him in a hot streak is pretty crucial to us going on a run. When he has an off day or two (and everyone does) that will be when the shape we play could hurt us and when AP will earn his money

subscription - 80 quid a month.. only have delayed like this or CL games not worth the money. Could have gone to pub but couldn't be bothered no worries wasn't important Oh incase anyone is interested and rich below are prices from ME destinations but they'll do packages from UK http://www.emirates.com/ae/english/Images/200908300603_Updated_FIFA_Price_Matrix_TH_V2_19Aug09GCC_tcm277-494842.pdf

Sod this footie on the internet... No sat coverage on our box, no bloody radio available as you've all nicked the bandwidth and as for that justin bloke, just a blank screen of adverts telling us how he's fishing or online or something.

Another thread that stayed interesting for a while and then descended..... Pearson was never going to be kept on by Lowe. Forget it, whatever his record may have been, OTHERS in football called NP a Boot Boy, that is where the nickname came from and that is what swayed Lowe's opinion as WELL as his "will for revenge on Crouch" Lowe was coming back from before before 14th Feb 2007 when I had confirmation, basically from the moment that Leon "seized" control and sidelined Mike Wilde, the die was cast. Would NP have done better than the Dutch? Stupid question we all can answer. Could he do better than AP? Jury is out. NP had ONE job - keep us up, he did. Well done. AP had a different job - rebuild a skeleton into something that looked like a football club. He's doing it, keep it up! Could AP have kept us up? hmmm Could NP have had the breadth of experience to rebuild a club from scratch? hmmm It's a fair debate, there are some pretty important FACTS missing that the Stats don't show - such as how much the finances (as Clifford Nelson says) really impacted. My guess is that if we ever got to see the figures for 2008 season we may just actually start to wonder how on earth we kept going all season. But the point is, it matters not. We currently have AP and we are rebuilding, Leicester have NP and are seeking to stay in the CCC so they can then move forwards. Neither is gonna swap jobs in the next week or two I guess

You got my point in the end If one of the squad WANTS to leave, then in the old days the Board asked "How much can we get for him" In the new era, I think it will be "How much do we need to find someone who will be BETTER" to move us forward in our plan eg is Lambert better than DMG? Today, now, in this league? of course he is IF we sold Lambert in January we get somebody even BETTER for the job we need doing. Simple, we don't bank the money and BS the fans that Patto is now ready to step up (He will but not yet) Fundamental shift. If we have a happy squad and a solid spirit then the idea of swapping weekly games for treble the money to sit in the reserves in the PL becomes a different equation, many may well stay

Falling to pieces at Oldham should not change this feeling that we are starting to have. In the bigger scheme of things with the players now in a fast learning curve hiccups along the way are a vital part of the "building" of the great team & manager conbination. AP comments that the "shock" of the Bristol result seesm to have been a spur to make the next step, so as long as we only get occassional monkeys we're learning. Also, we should never discount the impact of fate or luck. Who on this forum or even in the SMS management team would have imagined that Wotton's arrival as a proper DM would be the key to us having our "Happy Week". While he may not be the answer, at least we as fans have now been able to see what AP was trying to do with the shape of our team. Still, don't worry, it's football, somehow somewhere it always get's screwed up:-)

There is one CRITICAL difference this year compared to others. The owners will have budgeted on an average gate of between 15 & 17,000 at home. We are getting better than that and as the team improves it will increase. Also, although not "splashing the cash" they are making the club "self sufficient" Which in plain English means - so we sell a Lallana for 2 million. We gte 2 million to buy a replacement, NOT to spend on operating expenses for a bloated backroom staff and dividends etc. That money is spent as an INVESTMENT to make MORE money next time around. Lambert cost 1mil, we've coached him and got him fitter - he's improved, he's likely worth 1.5 to 2 mil to a CCC club now. We spend THAT money on a Lambert Mk2 who we improve and he becomes worth 4mil... It is a fundamental shift in concept from the previous regimes The DOWNSIDE of course is that the changes take time to bed in and improve - which is why the squad players need to be good enough to cover in those weeks We can do it and I hope we do, but it won't be an AP ML out protest march if we don't